Water Conservation Practices
Water
conservation is the minimization of water loss or wastage as well as the
preservation, care and protection of water resources and efficient and
effective use of water. As water conservation practices include saving of water
when excessive amount is available and / preserving of water made available
because of water supply and demand management, it is, therefore, a key in
managing water crisis under any context.
In
general, water crisis is a term that refers to the scarcity and quality of
available water resources relative to human demand. However, in the Pakistani
context, the definition of water crisis changes to a phenomenon that has to
deal with either dealing with too much of flood water over a shorter span of
time, causing deaths and destruction as is happening at present, as well as
facing a perpetual threat of survival because there is too little water over an
extended period. Of course, water
quality remains a serious its concern and essential component in either case.
To
address water crisis, merely increasing water availability through water supply
management and reducing water consumption
through water demand management are
probably not sufficient measures unless we create conditions that allow extra
water available, either through improving supplies or by reduction in water
demand, to be conserved for additional uses or preserved for future needs. In
other words, water conservation practices are an integral component of overall
water management as well as water crisis management.
In
general, efficient and effective use of water concerns the end-users of water.
We have a great knowledge base for water conservation at users’ level when we
look at say domestic and industrial sub-sectors of water use. In these cases,
new ideas and innovations have been practically implemented to show how surplus
water can be secured within existing supplies for additional water users. For
the last four decades, we have made concerted efforts do similar water
management in the irrigated sector of Pakistan but with limited success.
Of course, the irrigated agriculture
sector uses by far the majority of available freshwater, around 90-97 % in our
local context. If proper conditions are created for effective water demand
management and water conservation for the end-users, there is a vast potential
of sparing huge quantities of freshwater for either bringing additional areas
under cultivation or increasing cropping intensities within limited landholdings.
Pakistan has made tremendous
progress in creating conducive conditions for demand side water management at
the users’ end. Since the early seventies, different water management projects
have been undertaken. To improve water use efficiency, the following few
important innovative activities have been tried:
- Watercourse
lining / improvements to improve water conveyance efficiencies;
- Precision
land leveling first by manual control and then by LASER to eliminate local
undulations within fields to enhance irrigation efficiencies;
- Introduction
of better designed gravity irrigation application methods (like level
basin-borders, basin-furrows and bed-and -furrows) to avoid over
irrigation that usually occurs under traditional field flooding methods, occurring particularly at the start of
the irrigation season;
- Experiments
are being conducted to introduce pressurized irrigation methods like the
drip water application technique for point irrigation aimed at further
water saving by limiting the area to be watered;
- Promotion
of zero-tillage to save time, energy and water in areas such as the wheat-rice
zones;
- Demonstration
of packaged improvements like watercourse lining, land leveling, proper
design of water application method, precision crop planting, use of high
yielding seeds, proper fertilizer applications and irrigation scheduling
for many times higher water productivity; and
- Treatment
of dominantly sodic groundwater either to apply exclusively or to augment
canal water supplies for a safer additional source for irrigation.
Of course, over the last four
decades, there have been well-intended efforts to save water by improving water
use efficiency at the lower-end of the irrigation system in this country.
Watercourse lining activity has been implemented at the national level to
reduce head-tail differences by increasing water supplies along the improved
conveyance systems. Similarly, even at a limited scale, precision land leveling
controlled by LASER technology is making its existence felt. Other stated activities
could not go beyond testing and trial stages.
In view of the awareness created and
acceptance of new innovative ideas for efficient water use, there is a need to
move on to the next stage where water use projects or programs are designed to a)
deliver outputs either in the form of visible water savings, b) conserve water
physically for later use, or c) enhance productivity and profitability per unit
of water allocated to the farmers, where conservation utility gets translated
into additional outputs.
In the first case, we need to have
either on-farm or off-farm water storages to see physical savings. Furthermore adjustments to water rights can
be made where saved and stored water is allowed to be traded to create a market
for delivering adequate amounts of water for growing crops in the vicinity and
other non-agricultural uses. Unless we conserve through visible and tangible water
savings, these supply side and demand side improvements will remain hearsay and
hence, remain invisible water savings or dry water savings as stated by a water
expert of International Water Management Institute.
In the second case, by implementing
the whole package of required inputs of higher crop productivity, we secure
results of improved water use efficiency by the end-users to enhance
profitability per unit water applied at a farm or field level. This appears to
be an abstract type of water conservation but closer scrutiny reveals it to be
very tangible in terms of higher productivity per unit of water delivered. However,
there cannot be enhanced water productivity if we remain emotionally attached
to the old wild flooding irrigation systems? In short, water demand management
by improving water use efficiency in agriculture must deliver tangible outputs
that are very visible and solid for everyone to see and acknowledge. The stated
target is only achievable if water conservation practices remain an integral
part of water management.
There are other more sophisticated
ways to conserve water by reducing or eliminating water demand for crops in our
environment of water scarcity: Why can’t we consider importing virtual water as
Israel did 50 year back? If Israel can decide in 1960 not to grow cereal crops
by importing cereals to buy in virtual water; why can’t we do the same? Why not
go for additional measures like either dropping or replacing tropical crops
with those crops that suit our arid environment and demand less water?
Gigantic challenges demand daring
policies aimed at a paradigm shift to a kind of agriculture that suits an arid
and semi-arid environment with scarce water resources. If Israel can buy-in
virtual water almost equivalent to twice the amount of freshwater available in
the country, what would it mean for Pakistan if the stated water and crop
choices are made a part of a new enforceable water conservation policy to meet
the challenges of the emerging water crisis? It is mind-boggling even to think
of the water savings that could result.
Wiser and proactive nations initiate
activities that may materialize in years to come. For example, for water
conservation to become a reality, water demand management requires effective
control for a measured amount of water to be delivered to water users. Sooner
we start pilot testing such ideas, the better it would be to manage emerging
water crisis effectively.
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